Music and Dance of Indians and Mestizos in an Andean Valley of Peru

Music and Dance of Indians and Mestizos in an Andean valley of Peru This book deals with the social context of the music and dance of the people of the Callejón de Huaylas, an Andean valley in Peru. It describes and analyzes-the connection between music and dance, people, and social events. The musical instruments, the repertoire, and the song texts were studied as part of - and reflection of - the society, as well as the performers, their public, and the events during which they met. The anthropological research started from the assumption that music and dance are nonverbal means of communication. They are a 'language of actions', a way of communicating with each other and part of culture as a system of shared ideas. The Callejón de Huaylas 1 The Callejón de Huaylas is an Andean valley in North-Central Peru. It is about 150 kilometers long and its valley floor is situated at an altitude of 2,200-3,100 meters above sea level. According to the census of 1981, the population of the Callejón de Huaylas amounted to 232,176 persons, 86,433 of whom urban and 145,743 rural. Many of the rural settlements of the area are corporate peasant communities: they are located on marginal land, which tends to be exploited by means of a traditional technology involving the members of the community. Production is mainly for subsistence, and the community has jurisdiction over the disposal of land. The area is inhabited by a population of Quechua-speaking Indian peasants and Spanish- speaking Mestizos (persons of mixed parentage). A strong opposition exists between these groups, from a socioeconomic as well as from a geographic viewpoint: the poor Indian peasants live in hamlets at high altitudes, whereas the relatively wealthy Mestizos live in towns along the highway. An intermediate group of acculturated Indians or Cholos is growing rapidly. The Indian population is undergoing a process of acculturation (and possible loss of cultural identity) because of contact with urban Mestizos, temporary migration to coastal towns or Lima, modern education, military service, and tourism. All this leads to a fast diffusion of the dominant urban culture, which-is reflected in the music and dance of the area. In 1970, the area was devastated by an earthquake, which had great economic and social consequences, the more so since the revolutionary military government of that time undertook large agricultural, administrative and educational reforms. After the new highway to the Callejón de Huaylas was finished in 1976, tourism became a major industry. The beauty of the area, its fine climate and the possibilities for trekking and mountain climbing attract Peruvian as well as foreign tourists. Background of the research Chapter 1 serves as an introduction to the description and analysis of the material gathered in the field. It deals with the theoretical and historical background of the research, followed by a general description of the Callejón de Huaylas and the people living there. The anthropology of music and dance is a relatively new discipline which studies these types of expressive culture in their social context, as part of the culture. Both music and dance are means of communication and it should, therefore, be possible to gain an insight into a particular society by studying them. In order to give some depth to the synchronic data gathered by me, historical data on Peru and Peruvian music have been consulted when available in the form of archaeological data, books written by chroniclers at the time of the Spanish conquest, and studies by 20th century scholars. The people of the Callejón de Huaylas are discussed in their social, economical and political context, in order to better understand their music and dance. Music and dance Chapter 2 describes the music and dance of the Callejón de Huaylas: the instruments and how they are acquired - e.g. constructed in the area or bought in the provincial capital or Lima - as well as the way the instruments are combined to form orchestras, e.g. their use. Then, the religious and secular repertoire is discussed. Religious music is played during processions, either by musicians that accompany traditional dance groups or by brass bands. The secular 2 repertoire is classified by the people of the Callejón de Huaylas into vernacular, Creole, and international music. Vernacular are: the huayno, the pasacalle, the yaraví, and the danza. Creole are: the (Peruvian) waltz, the marinera, and the polka. International are: the so-called 'fox incaico' (the well-known songs 'El condor pasa' and 'Vírgenes del Sol' belong to this genre), the pasodoble, the corrido and other types of Mexican songs, the cumbia, and the salsa. The huayno Of the vernacular genre, the huayno is the most popular type: 85% of the songs recorded and analyzed by me were huaynos. They are played in a secular context, but are often closely related to religious events, such as when small groups of instruments play in bars in the periphery of the procession during a patron saint festival. The huayno, being the focal point of the musical culture of the Callejón de Huaylas, is dealt with separately: its musicological structure is discussed, whereafter 'Río Santa', a much-performed huayno, is analyzed. The contents of song texts of the Callejón de Huaylas, mostly huaynos, gathered by means of recording and buying song books, were analyzed and related to the social, economical and political situation of the area. They are divided into three categories: 1) the ideal situation, represented by the homeland and the love of the parents; 2) the suffering in the present; and 3) the evasion from the suffering through drinking or leaving. A number of songs, in Quechua and/or Spanish, are given, with the translation in English. Other than being a musical genre, the huayno also is the most popular type of (vernacular) dance in the Callejón de Huaylas. The dances, like the types of music, may be divided into vernacular, Creole, and international genres. Whereas the secular huayno is a 'baile' danced by couples, the purely instrumental religious 'danzas' are performed by groups, of which quite a number exist in the area. Many of these may be seen in the film of the procession on the octava of the patron saint festival of Carhuaz. Some of these dance groups are a reminder of the pre-Columbian past, whereas others represent the battles fought against the Spaniards, or persons of colonial times. A more recent development are the performance-oriented folkloristic music and dance groups that perform on stage rather than as part of a religious or secular communal event. They are discussed more extensively in chapter 4. The performers In chapter 3 the background of a number of performers is sketched, based on 27 interviews with individual musicians and directors of music and dance groups. Their musical, educational, and economic background is discussed: whether they consider themselves professionals or amateurs, the amount of money they earn, their profession other than being a musician, and the way the repertoire is learned. Their views on what music means to them and what purposes it serves is given verbatim. 3 Individual musicians or small groups of musicians and dancers are most common in the Callejón de Huaylas; even the brass bands are relatively small. Most of the musicians play various instruments: at times in different orchestras, but also within the same group. Most of the groups have a director, often someone who founded the group or a member with a lot of experience and authority. Almost all the performers are part-time musicians and dancers.In daily life, most of them are farmers who earn some money by being a carpenter, construction worker, shopkeeper, driver, etc. or by migrating to the coast for a few months each year. They are mostly Indians or Cholos, with the exception of the members of the folk music groups who are predominantly Mestizos. There generally exists a close relationship between the performers and their public: they live and work in the same area, attend the same festivals, and are in regular contact with each other. Sponsors are very important, since they represent a 'hyphen' between the performers and the public. They pay (part of) the expenses of a festival, out of devotion to a particular Saint of Virgin, but also to increase their prestige in the community. Without sponsors, there are no festivals. In the case of the music played in the folkloristic taverns ('peñas folklóricas') a shift in context is taking place; the music is being 'internationalized', taken away from its owners, as it were, thereby losing its individuality and becoming anonymous. Performers often do not belong to the same social group as the spectatorsv and the music does not mean the same to each of them. It is a type of performance that is contaminated by the presentational techniques of the mass media like microphones and other types of recording equipment. The performers and the audience do not share the same fundamental cultural values and cannot communicate with each other: the distance between them is greater than that between the stage and the auditorium. In order to illustrate the general information obtained by participation, observation and interviews, the 'portraits' of a musician, Lorenzo Piscoche, and of the musicians of one village, Tumpa, will be drawn. Both case studies may be considered representative: Lorenzo Piscoche because he is an accomplished traditional musician, and Tumpa because it is a village where a variety of types of music are found. The events Chapter 4 describes events during which I observed music and dance. After a general introduction on the events celebrated in the Callejón de Huaylas, these are classified along two sets of oppositions: religious/secular and communal/private, resulting in four basic categories: 1) religious communal events; 2) religious private events; 3) secular private events; and 4) secular communal events.

Load more